Part Ninety Two
A very grateful George drove off down the road as if drunk on the freedom she had regained, very loud music fading on the air with her exhaust smoke. Ken on the gate was puzzled at this and thought that it takes all sorts to make a world, even this woman. In the meantime, Karen turned her footsteps with no great enthusiasm to obey the royal summons.
Karen felt that she had gained a measure of stability and tranquillity in her job as Larkhall had run through its stock of nasty surprises. Grayling had remained frigid and distant with the minimum of social interaction. That suited her fine as that allowed her semi autonomy to run her part of Larkhall pretty much as she wanted. As for Fenner, he was behaving outwardly as near as he could ever become to a model officer. Karen knew now that this was his standard protective device when he felt the heat was on him to lie low until the danger, real or otherwise, had passed. This was how she had found him before but she was certain that this time she wasn't going to be fooled like she was last time. At the end of the day, she reasoned to herself, you start to learn from life rather than forever being a victim of it. Another reason for her satisfied feeling was that , after visiting Shell Dockley, she felt that she knew him at last and knew him for what he really was. The court case was starting to roll and all she needed to do was to stick in there and keep things ticking over in her day to day job.
She knocked politely and pushed the door to Grayling's lair open and smiled briefly. There was no answering smile in response, only a cold gesture to sit in the very kind of seat George had taken opposite her.
"Karen, I'll come to the point. I have just received a complaint about you from the Chief Executive of Ashmore special psychiatric hospital about a visit you made to one of the inmates there. Delighted as I am that you are taking an interest in matters outside the narrow confines of this prison, I frown at such an initiative which results in this prison with my name on the door receiving a complaint………."
"Exactly what was I supposed to have done wrong?" Karen asked quietly. The knack with Grayling was to pin him down to specifics. She had realised that this was his weakness to zero in on.
"You will kindly wait till I have finished my story and I will tell you exactly what you have done wrong, more than you will like," Grayling glared at her.
"For a start, I checked your personal diary for the day and you were down as 'working from home on accounts.' Your visit to Ashmore does not fit in to what I would call a description of working on the G Wing budget, does it?"
For one moment, Karen was locked into the frame of mind that made herself feel guilty as charged and to let someone in authority trample all over her. It had happened before when she was a nurse when some dragon of a ward sister would do that to her and occasionally when she was an ordinary prison officer. She used to come out of such an interview with a mixed feeling of resentment and annoyance with herself at having capitulated when there was no need to. She was younger then and she had toughened up over the years and learned not to play the victim in her professional life.
"The definition of home is rather elastic, Neil. Wherever I'm working out of this prison is home to me. I thought that this was one of the very few perks of my job but perhaps I was wrong about that?"she answered, chancing a touch of irony. "And I was dealing with accounts in the sense that I am settling accounts with Jim Fenner over having raped me many months ago. I've never forgotten or forgiven what he did that night."
"I've had the Chief Executive yelling down the phone at me that you landed yourself on her doorstep with no advance notice and waving court orders around. We depend on them for a spirit of cooperation and your actions are hardly going to make them amenable if we want a favour off them at short notice. In what way do you think that stomping your way all over Ashmore will improve customer relations? What did you think you were doing, Karen?" Grayling blustered.
She sighed in contempt at Grayling's last question. This wasn't the first time she had been hauled up before authority and been asked this question. She could never decide whether that authority symbol really wanted to hear Karen's explanations of her actions or whether or not it was a rhetorical question, appealing to the manifestly sensible majority against the outcast and the rebel. When she had become an authority in her turn, she made absolutely sure that if she handed out any reprimands, she was much more original and she thought out the matter thoroughly in advance. The best rebel was someone who had had a taste of authority and her time when she was back in uniform reminded her of this when the Wing Governor over her was first Fenner and then Sylvia.
"If you must know, Neil, I asked her very politely if I could talk to the one person who knows more about Fenner than anyone else, Shell Dockley. It was only when she was being bloody minded and downright obstructive about the whole business that I had to slap a high court order on her," Karen replied in John's nonchalant tones that he employed when he indicated that he would seek a writ of habeas corpus. "And if you remember rightly we had a little discussion about your non existent friend in the CPS who didn't tell you that my case had very little chance of success like you told me about. I told When you arranged a home visit for Denny Blood, you surely don't think you were paying off a debt to me that easily," Karen retaliated with her best ironic thrust to take the steam out of Grayling.
"It looks as if you have friends in high places."
"Now you know what it feels like…..and my friends are more powerful than yours, even Chief Executives."
"Don't think you can blackmail me, Karen. You are putting yourself in a very questionable position. What's it to be next time, I wonder," Grayling glared. He loved the subtle exercise of pressure to bend someone to his will but hated it when he was on the receiving end.
"It isn't blackmail to grant me something that I had reasonably requested and something that you are well able to do within the rules," Karen's rapier verbal riposte, counterattacked like lightning. She was unaware that her experience of appearing in a court of law had definitely sharpened her ability in the art of verbal cut and thrust and especially as she followed this up with a crushing argument. "Especially as this favour is directly linked to the way you deceived me all those months ago and I was more vulnerable than you will ever know unless you have been in the exact same situation, Neil."
Grayling's mouth was pursed tight and contracted in that characteristic manner that indicated his displeasure while the frozen seconds ticked away. There was a curious expression in his eyes that visibly blanked off any thought that challenged his equilibrium. Such is the nature of the man of vision that alternative thinking is a subversive act.
"You have to understand that you are an essential part of management and that I expect my management team to be 'singing from the same hymnsheet.' We may have our little differences but we should all pull together for the greater good of Larkhall. When I first came to Larkhall as Governor, I made it my mission to ensure that HMS Larkhall would be steaming a straight course……."
Where had she heard that phrase before , a part of Karen's mind nagged away at her as her mind went on automatic pilot while Grayling droned on interminably. Then she was hit by a blinding light of inspirational memory which hardly related to the darkened gloom that Grayling chose to work in. She had exchanged a bit of small talk and remembered George talk sarcastically of that being a favourite phrase of her ex, the other Neil. It seemed no coincidence that the same managementspeak infested both the Home Office and the world of politics like some malignant plague. Ever since she had first talked to John in his chambers, she felt that she was being educated as to who really pulled the strings in institutions and she sensed a spirit of corruption that ran across all institutions. The trouble with working in the prison service day in, day out was that you became very insular in your outlook in a way of life that had as much bolts and bars as did the prisoners. The only difference between them was that the prisoners had no choice but to be behind bars.
"You haven't been listening to a single word I've been saying, Karen," Grayling snapped.
"You were saying, Neil, that I should do as you say," Karen summarised simply.
Grayling's eyes swiveled away from Karen's face with a hint of a smirk at the corner of her lips. This was, indeed, what he meant but he didn't like it when she expressed it so bluntly.
"That's not the only reason I've called you to see me. I want you to explain that disgraceful exhibition when one of our notorious prisoners was allowed to attack the barrister who visited Larkhall. It doesn't matter who the visitor is…"which Karen's mind interpreted to mean that it still rankled with Grayling …….."but as Wing Governor, you are responsible for ensuring the safety at all times of visitors to this prison. any incidents give Larkhall a bad name."
"I had given explicit orders to Jim Fenner that Al McKenzie be kept strictly away from Ms Channing, only he directly disobeyed my express order. He even had the nerve to say that because she was the barrister who defended Snowball Merriman, she 'deserved everything she got.' I explained that to her and, while she was pretty shaken up, she understood perfectly well what had happened. More than you are right now."
"You're out of line, Karen. I have more trouble from you than all my other Wing Governors put together and I'm not sure how much more I'm going to tolerate your 'go it alone' approach. You have this 'voice of the people' approach which is prejudicial to proper management. You can't run with the hares and hunt with the hounds,'" Grayling growled, a dangerous light in his eye.
"Oh, so running Larkhall is like foxhunting or harecoursing, is it?" Karen fired back at the man for whom she had the utmost loathing and contempt.
"You're getting me wrong," Grayling said irritably. "Listen, I'll overlook your actions this once but if you rock the boat again then I may be forced to make a disciplinary over the matter."
He's on the run, came the triumphant reply. This is his way of trying to get out of the situation without losing face. He's bitten off more than he can chew. It's best to give him the escape route.
"I'll tell you what, Neil. I was seriously thinking of making a disciplinary matter over Jim Fenner's direct disobedience of my order, but I'll leave it as long as I have your permission that I can leave it be this time, but if he crosses the line again, I'll have his guts for garters."
Grayling scowled at Karen, seeing his ploy so neatly turned around against him but even he couldn't think of a pretext to object to Karen.Silently, he gestured to Karen to leave.
In a glow of rejoicing, she got up from her chair and made her way out of the door.
"And don't worry, Neil. I'll let you know immediately if Ms Channing does write or phone me up about today's unfortunate incident," And Karen fired her parting shot at Grayling. She knew very well that her apparent helpfulness poorly concealed the casual way that barristers might contact her rather than Grayling.
She virtually danced down the landing, part of her dizzy and slightly drunk on her victory and the other more cautious part of her advising her that one day she could push matters a little bit too far. At least in her professional life, she had the instinctive knack of where to draw the line.
A very grateful George drove off down the road as if drunk on the freedom she had regained, very loud music fading on the air with her exhaust smoke. Ken on the gate was puzzled at this and thought that it takes all sorts to make a world, even this woman. In the meantime, Karen turned her footsteps with no great enthusiasm to obey the royal summons.
Karen felt that she had gained a measure of stability and tranquillity in her job as Larkhall had run through its stock of nasty surprises. Grayling had remained frigid and distant with the minimum of social interaction. That suited her fine as that allowed her semi autonomy to run her part of Larkhall pretty much as she wanted. As for Fenner, he was behaving outwardly as near as he could ever become to a model officer. Karen knew now that this was his standard protective device when he felt the heat was on him to lie low until the danger, real or otherwise, had passed. This was how she had found him before but she was certain that this time she wasn't going to be fooled like she was last time. At the end of the day, she reasoned to herself, you start to learn from life rather than forever being a victim of it. Another reason for her satisfied feeling was that , after visiting Shell Dockley, she felt that she knew him at last and knew him for what he really was. The court case was starting to roll and all she needed to do was to stick in there and keep things ticking over in her day to day job.
She knocked politely and pushed the door to Grayling's lair open and smiled briefly. There was no answering smile in response, only a cold gesture to sit in the very kind of seat George had taken opposite her.
"Karen, I'll come to the point. I have just received a complaint about you from the Chief Executive of Ashmore special psychiatric hospital about a visit you made to one of the inmates there. Delighted as I am that you are taking an interest in matters outside the narrow confines of this prison, I frown at such an initiative which results in this prison with my name on the door receiving a complaint………."
"Exactly what was I supposed to have done wrong?" Karen asked quietly. The knack with Grayling was to pin him down to specifics. She had realised that this was his weakness to zero in on.
"You will kindly wait till I have finished my story and I will tell you exactly what you have done wrong, more than you will like," Grayling glared at her.
"For a start, I checked your personal diary for the day and you were down as 'working from home on accounts.' Your visit to Ashmore does not fit in to what I would call a description of working on the G Wing budget, does it?"
For one moment, Karen was locked into the frame of mind that made herself feel guilty as charged and to let someone in authority trample all over her. It had happened before when she was a nurse when some dragon of a ward sister would do that to her and occasionally when she was an ordinary prison officer. She used to come out of such an interview with a mixed feeling of resentment and annoyance with herself at having capitulated when there was no need to. She was younger then and she had toughened up over the years and learned not to play the victim in her professional life.
"The definition of home is rather elastic, Neil. Wherever I'm working out of this prison is home to me. I thought that this was one of the very few perks of my job but perhaps I was wrong about that?"she answered, chancing a touch of irony. "And I was dealing with accounts in the sense that I am settling accounts with Jim Fenner over having raped me many months ago. I've never forgotten or forgiven what he did that night."
"I've had the Chief Executive yelling down the phone at me that you landed yourself on her doorstep with no advance notice and waving court orders around. We depend on them for a spirit of cooperation and your actions are hardly going to make them amenable if we want a favour off them at short notice. In what way do you think that stomping your way all over Ashmore will improve customer relations? What did you think you were doing, Karen?" Grayling blustered.
She sighed in contempt at Grayling's last question. This wasn't the first time she had been hauled up before authority and been asked this question. She could never decide whether that authority symbol really wanted to hear Karen's explanations of her actions or whether or not it was a rhetorical question, appealing to the manifestly sensible majority against the outcast and the rebel. When she had become an authority in her turn, she made absolutely sure that if she handed out any reprimands, she was much more original and she thought out the matter thoroughly in advance. The best rebel was someone who had had a taste of authority and her time when she was back in uniform reminded her of this when the Wing Governor over her was first Fenner and then Sylvia.
"If you must know, Neil, I asked her very politely if I could talk to the one person who knows more about Fenner than anyone else, Shell Dockley. It was only when she was being bloody minded and downright obstructive about the whole business that I had to slap a high court order on her," Karen replied in John's nonchalant tones that he employed when he indicated that he would seek a writ of habeas corpus. "And if you remember rightly we had a little discussion about your non existent friend in the CPS who didn't tell you that my case had very little chance of success like you told me about. I told When you arranged a home visit for Denny Blood, you surely don't think you were paying off a debt to me that easily," Karen retaliated with her best ironic thrust to take the steam out of Grayling.
"It looks as if you have friends in high places."
"Now you know what it feels like…..and my friends are more powerful than yours, even Chief Executives."
"Don't think you can blackmail me, Karen. You are putting yourself in a very questionable position. What's it to be next time, I wonder," Grayling glared. He loved the subtle exercise of pressure to bend someone to his will but hated it when he was on the receiving end.
"It isn't blackmail to grant me something that I had reasonably requested and something that you are well able to do within the rules," Karen's rapier verbal riposte, counterattacked like lightning. She was unaware that her experience of appearing in a court of law had definitely sharpened her ability in the art of verbal cut and thrust and especially as she followed this up with a crushing argument. "Especially as this favour is directly linked to the way you deceived me all those months ago and I was more vulnerable than you will ever know unless you have been in the exact same situation, Neil."
Grayling's mouth was pursed tight and contracted in that characteristic manner that indicated his displeasure while the frozen seconds ticked away. There was a curious expression in his eyes that visibly blanked off any thought that challenged his equilibrium. Such is the nature of the man of vision that alternative thinking is a subversive act.
"You have to understand that you are an essential part of management and that I expect my management team to be 'singing from the same hymnsheet.' We may have our little differences but we should all pull together for the greater good of Larkhall. When I first came to Larkhall as Governor, I made it my mission to ensure that HMS Larkhall would be steaming a straight course……."
Where had she heard that phrase before , a part of Karen's mind nagged away at her as her mind went on automatic pilot while Grayling droned on interminably. Then she was hit by a blinding light of inspirational memory which hardly related to the darkened gloom that Grayling chose to work in. She had exchanged a bit of small talk and remembered George talk sarcastically of that being a favourite phrase of her ex, the other Neil. It seemed no coincidence that the same managementspeak infested both the Home Office and the world of politics like some malignant plague. Ever since she had first talked to John in his chambers, she felt that she was being educated as to who really pulled the strings in institutions and she sensed a spirit of corruption that ran across all institutions. The trouble with working in the prison service day in, day out was that you became very insular in your outlook in a way of life that had as much bolts and bars as did the prisoners. The only difference between them was that the prisoners had no choice but to be behind bars.
"You haven't been listening to a single word I've been saying, Karen," Grayling snapped.
"You were saying, Neil, that I should do as you say," Karen summarised simply.
Grayling's eyes swiveled away from Karen's face with a hint of a smirk at the corner of her lips. This was, indeed, what he meant but he didn't like it when she expressed it so bluntly.
"That's not the only reason I've called you to see me. I want you to explain that disgraceful exhibition when one of our notorious prisoners was allowed to attack the barrister who visited Larkhall. It doesn't matter who the visitor is…"which Karen's mind interpreted to mean that it still rankled with Grayling …….."but as Wing Governor, you are responsible for ensuring the safety at all times of visitors to this prison. any incidents give Larkhall a bad name."
"I had given explicit orders to Jim Fenner that Al McKenzie be kept strictly away from Ms Channing, only he directly disobeyed my express order. He even had the nerve to say that because she was the barrister who defended Snowball Merriman, she 'deserved everything she got.' I explained that to her and, while she was pretty shaken up, she understood perfectly well what had happened. More than you are right now."
"You're out of line, Karen. I have more trouble from you than all my other Wing Governors put together and I'm not sure how much more I'm going to tolerate your 'go it alone' approach. You have this 'voice of the people' approach which is prejudicial to proper management. You can't run with the hares and hunt with the hounds,'" Grayling growled, a dangerous light in his eye.
"Oh, so running Larkhall is like foxhunting or harecoursing, is it?" Karen fired back at the man for whom she had the utmost loathing and contempt.
"You're getting me wrong," Grayling said irritably. "Listen, I'll overlook your actions this once but if you rock the boat again then I may be forced to make a disciplinary over the matter."
He's on the run, came the triumphant reply. This is his way of trying to get out of the situation without losing face. He's bitten off more than he can chew. It's best to give him the escape route.
"I'll tell you what, Neil. I was seriously thinking of making a disciplinary matter over Jim Fenner's direct disobedience of my order, but I'll leave it as long as I have your permission that I can leave it be this time, but if he crosses the line again, I'll have his guts for garters."
Grayling scowled at Karen, seeing his ploy so neatly turned around against him but even he couldn't think of a pretext to object to Karen.Silently, he gestured to Karen to leave.
In a glow of rejoicing, she got up from her chair and made her way out of the door.
"And don't worry, Neil. I'll let you know immediately if Ms Channing does write or phone me up about today's unfortunate incident," And Karen fired her parting shot at Grayling. She knew very well that her apparent helpfulness poorly concealed the casual way that barristers might contact her rather than Grayling.
She virtually danced down the landing, part of her dizzy and slightly drunk on her victory and the other more cautious part of her advising her that one day she could push matters a little bit too far. At least in her professional life, she had the instinctive knack of where to draw the line.